BON APPETIT: Chocolate Baileys Mud Cake

"Chocolate doesn't ask silly questions; chocolate understands"

Chocolates works wonders whenever I am down & out. Soothing frayed nerves, it instantly send across shots of joy and happiness throughout. My fridge is packed with a variety of them and they are my 3 am buddy, late night pal and a comfortable shoulder to ~~cry~~ bite on. Many researches have shown evidence of what a healthy amount of chocolates can do to your system--- reducing the risk of heart disease, improving brain power et al. Not that I need any scientific evidence for digging in to it; but, do you know that chocolates contain Serotonin - a mood lifting hormone found naturally in the human brain. No wonder, they are great mood elevators...

That brings me to my another love - cakes! My previous post and so many of my other posts would vouch my love for the cakes; if the cakes are chocolaty then surely it is a ticket to heaven and back! The unopened Irish cream bottle in my pantry was begging me to use it for quite some time. And while eyeing a few recipes in the net I came across a mud cake recipe all glammed up with the Irish Whiskey. And yeah, the kitchen hummed a tipsy tune....

This chocolate mud cake with Irish Cream is truly a killer recipe. And my work-mates will vouch for it.

The recipe from Citrus and Candy has been tweaked a little to accommodate the ingredients my pantry had. This cake boasts chocolates with a liberal splash of the Irish liqueur making it jazzier.

The bailey ganache to top the cake added to the pep. I used fresh cream for the ganche. The quantity of the liqueur in the ganache is as mentioned in the recipe but like the original recipe says you can make a boozier version of it sans cream or you can totally skip the whiskey and make it a chocolaty ganache!

In the midst of all these, I had to prevent my chocolates and the cake mix to be hunted down by a tiny predator! Look who's prowling!!!!

What's in it :-

For the cake

Unsalted butter - 150 grams
Dark chocolate - 100 grams (chopped)
Caster sugar - 200 grams
Cocoa powder - 50 grams (sifted)
Bailey's Irish Cream - 180 ml
Plain flour - 170 grams
Baking powder - 1.5 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Eggs - 3 (room temperature)

For the Chocolate Baileys Ganache

Good quality dark chocolate - 200 grams (finely chopped)
Cream - 100 ml (I used Amul Fresh Cream)
Baileys Irish Cream - 100 ml
Salt - a pinch
Unsalted butter - 1 tbsp (softened to room temperature)

Here's How :-

Cake

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line a cake tin.

In a pan over low heat, add the butter, chocolate, sugar, cocoa powder and Baileys. When chocolate and butter has melted, whisk together to combine till the mix is free of any lumps. Remove from heat and leave it to cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and set aside.

Add the eggs to the slightly cooled chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Gently fold in the sifted flour mix until free of lumps. Scrape into cake tin then bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Do not over bake. And it is ok if the top of the cake is a little cracked as the top will be trimmed to accommodate the ganache.

Remove from oven and let it cool for some time before demoulding. Once the cake cools down completely trim the top of the cake to pour the ganache all over.

For the ganache:-

Bring the cream, Baileys and the salt to a simmer in a pan. Pour over the chocolate and sit for a minute. Gently stir to combine then beat in the butter. Set aside at room temperature and cool until it is thick enough to spread over your cooled cake. I refrigerated the ganache for some time as I felt that it was a little runny. To keep the ganache smooth gently stir the ganache occasionally.